IF NFL REFS LOCKOUT MEANS FILL-IN ZEBRAS, GAMES WOULD BE A ZOO

“This is the NFL, and fans deserve the very best. Drew Brees is making millions and who’s protecting him? You have to muddle through the preseason with the real officials losing valuable time to prepare. Friends become enemies and resentment lingers. All I know is, if I’m a big-time quarterback in this league I want to know who’s back there protecting me.”

The hair pull is about money of course and there haven’t been any negotiations lately between The League and officials’ union.

“My personal vibe is that it could go on through the first quarter of the season,” Pereira says. “There’s more animosity now and it involves pensions. The pension always has been the key thing for officials and the league wants to do away with it and go to a 401(k) plan. They want more pay and they’re way apart there.

“They just want the status quo with the pension. The league wants to do what industries in peril do, switch to a 401(k). But I think we all find it difficult to look at it and say the NFL is in peril. The officials aren’t going to get what they want and the league isn’t going to get what it wants, so both sides have to give. It’s not going to be good for the game, but both sides seem entrenched. The league seems like it’s trying to negotiate through the media.”

I’m a big fan of zebras — in eastern Africa — but the human kind are essential to our games, and NFL officials, despite not being full-time employees, do the best job under terribly difficult circumstances. I just can’t see any way this won’t be a calamity.

“There are people who are loved and hated,” Pereira says. “Officials are tolerated and hated.”

And best when invisible. I have a feeling this new crop is going to be a gaggle of sore thumbs.